The Anathemata
Keel, Ram, Stauros (continued)
Who else should they choose
to handle the bitch
(and what a crew!)
if not the cod’s-eye man?
the bacchic pelasgian
disciplinarian.
But watch his
disciplinaa
beyond the gangways aft
abaft
the trembling tree.
David Jones notes
additional notes
a disciplina: practical knowledge, learning. The contrast is between being a disciplinarian before the mast with the crew on the deck, and having much sea knowledge abaft (behind) the mast in the officers’ quarters and in the centre of command.
comments
‘the trembling tree’ once more invokes the image of the mast and yardarm as the cross of Christ. DJ says that as a poet he could not use the word ‘tree’ without thinking of the rood, the cross and crucifixion.